2y ago

Fukushima: The fishy business of China's outrage over Japan's release

www.bbc.com /news/world-asia-66613158

In China, there is alarm over the nuclear plant's water but its seafood ban isn't rooted in science.

29 comments

It's not like the scientific community isn't divided on the release of the wastewater, just that the release of tritium is probably not the biggest concern.
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/24/1195419846/fukushima-radioactive-water-japan
There's still concern about the custom-designed ALPS system and the trace contaminants it may leave, which WILL bioaccumulate. Plus, Tepco hasn't really been known for, y'know, prioritizing health and safety over profit.
- Honestly, I wouldn’t trust anything TEPCO says further than I can collectively throw the entire company when it comes to health and safety.
New on this planet? When was the last time any political decision was based on science?
Sorry for the shitpost, I missed my train and now I'm a little bored 🤫
- Seriously, I was about to say that tracks with politicians everywhere, from the ones dealing with climate change in the US to the ones trying to undo encryption in Europe. I'd be more surprised if politicians ever did base their decisions on science.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Japan has called on China to remove a total ban on its seafood products, imposed after Tokyo began the scientifically-endorsed release of treated water from its Fukushima nuclear plant.
China, the leading buyer of Japan's fish, announced on Thursday it was making the order due to concerns for consumers' health.
Locals consume most of the catch, so top seafood companies Nissui and Maruha Nichiro have both said they expect limited impact from China's ban.
Experts say even people who scoff down lots of seafood will be exposed to only extremely low doses of radiation - in the range of 0.0062 to 0.032 microSv per year, said Mark Foreman, an associate professor of nuclear chemistry in Sweden.
China and its territories Hong Kong and Macau - had already instated a partial ban on seafood from some Japanese areas- but authorities now expanded that net.
Following China's announcement on Thursday, many Japanese on Twitter even celebrated the ban - wryly suggesting it could mean cheaper fish at home.
The original article contains 812 words, the summary contains 166 words. Saved 80%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
UK consumers are always welcome to import seafood from those waters
If it will protect the fish from overfishing and isn't that radioactive, this is a net positive :)
- The government said they will pay for unsold fish so I doubt it.... Its probably just going to go to waste.
whats the rate of release (liters per minute or something like that)?
- And there was the pet food that killed people’s pets.
  
  They also made baby formula that killed babies.
From what I’ve seen, two weeks in the water would be equivalent to the dose a flight attendant received in a full year, one of the highest radiation jobs out there. These fish live in that water 365 days a year though, not two weeks a year, so they’ll receive 25x that dose over the course of the year.
- That's the water before it gets released into the ocean, though. That's the most concentrated it will ever be. Once it's released into the ocean it'll dilute across the whole planet and the effect will be literally unmeasurable.
  
  It will take quite a while for it to be diluted across the whole world, and in the meantime, those fish and animals living near the release zone will be receiving said doses, making it a perfectly reasonable stance to refuse to buy Japanese fish until we have some more hard data.
I live in Japan. I walked around with a Geiger counter and detected hotspots when reactor 4 exploded. I have seen the effects, the thyroid cancers, the total abandonment of Fukushima and I think this downplay of the dangers is irresponsible and propagandistic.
- And how do those readings compare to before the incident, and now?
- Any of you downvoters want to visit? Come and do the Obama drinks flint water to prove how hardcore you believe in this?
  Naw. Of course not. It won't affect you personally. So easy to dismiss other peoples actual suffering and concern isn't it. Hope all of your children live forever.
  
  Dude, I live here, too. I was here when the earthquake happened. I wasn’t in Fukushima, no, but was here in Japan through all the panics, the flyjin, the electricity conservations, grocery shopping where food displayed radiation testing, all of that. You’re being a smidge hyperbolic here.
  
  I would come there but I likely would be exposed to more radiation on the flight over than what I would find on the ground.
  
  I'd love to visit Japan! Will you pay for my tickets?
  
  Obviously I'm not going to fly out to Japan just to prove some random commenter wrong.
  But the American ambassador to Japan will do it.

29 comments